Broadband News

BSkyB may enter broadband market Autumn 2006

The UK Broadband market seems to be hotting up in a big way, already there are a good few big names in the unbundling scene, and BSkyB are now having the potential of their service spread all
over the newspapers.

The Guardian goes into some detail. The main suggestion is that subscribers to the SkyTV service may receive
a reduced price broadband subscription, as part of a triple play with a telephone service. Sky already offers a CPS deal as part of its Sky package lineup. A rough date of Autumn 2006 has been
given for when we will see a launch of the Sky Broadband service, which may be good timing as the current providers will have helped iron out the problems in the various processes.

The Easynet network is expected to reach around 12.5 million potential households by the end of the year, which is roughly half the homes in the UK. Whether the company will go much further is
unclear, the costs to roll-out to the remaining households is probably higher due to a lower housing density.

One clear and present danger in the LLU market, is that the competition for consumers will lead to a price war, and with almost all the companies at the stage of still making large capital
investments, we may see only those with the deepest pockets survive. This will be even worse, since all the LLU providers appear to be trying to target the same exchange areas, i.e. those with
the most lines.